MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Following the success of its three-day competition that aimed to shape college students into globally competitive future fintech leaders, mobile wallet GCash has announced the top five winning teams for its second ImaGnation innovation challenge.
In line with its vision to boost the massive adoption of financial technology nationwide, this year’s competition gathered 3rd-year to 5th-year undergraduate students to compete and come up with innovative ideas on how GCash Jr. can enable the everyday needs and future aspirations of Filipino youths.
Young innovators in action
For this year’s competition, nearly 417 young innovators, making up 144 teams from 50 universities nationwide, rose up to the challenge and presented their pitches on how to make GCash Jr. resonate better with the youth to better address their financial needs. In the end, the top 15 teams who qualified for the three-day boot camp were announced. Leaders and mentors from GCash helped equip contestants through learning sessions on how GCash Jr. can be an ewallet for the youth while promoting financial inclusion.
The top 15 teams were given the opportunity to present their business cases, followed by a Q&A with the GCash judges composed of the GCash leadership team. The top 5 finalists who stood out with the most innovative ideas were announced and proceeded to make the final presentation of their cases.
A new generation of innovators and leaders arises
The G-Katip team won as the first placer, taking home PHP 60,000 GCash credits, and an iPad 9th Gen for each member. The second place went to the FinItToWinIt team who won PHP 40,000 GCash credits, and Garmin Smart Watch for each member. The SynerG team also took third place, with a prize of PHP 20,000 GCash credits, and Airpods 3rd Gen for each member. Meanwhile, the team Cash & Furious and Finclusivity bagged fourth and fifth place respectively, and won PHP 15,000 GCash credits for each team.
Unleashing young talent’s potential, today and beyond
More than just giving an opportunity to turn their innovations into reality, GCash also gave all top five teams a guaranteed placement into GCash’s Jumpstart Internship Program to all undergraduate students part of the top 15 teams, an 11-week summer program to help young innovators begin their journey to becoming well-rounded, problem-solvers and fintech leaders in the future.
“Empowering young people is crucial to achieving massive adoption of financial technology. The innovation challenge is just the first of many initiatives that GCash will invest in pursuit of our financial inclusion vision to make Filipino lives better every day,” said GCash President and CEO Martha Sazon.
With the country quickly transitioning into a cash-lite society, GCash continues to build a strong pipeline of young talents by helping them make their innovations into reality and take a vital part in its vision of “Finance for All.”
